Brandon Zomalt: Death of Ex-Cerritos Resident Known as Rap Artist ‘Stayz Freshmore’ Swirls in Mystery, Controversy

By Brian Hews
Former Cerritos resident Brandon Zomalt has fallen victim of an apparent vicious murder in the State of Washington.
A decomposed, visually unidentifiable body was found on Monday inside the home he and his roommate had shared.
Officials in Washington are working on a positive identification, but all indications point to the body is that of the 30-year-old Zomalt.
Zomalt was raised in Cerritos, attended Pat Nixon Elementary School, and eventually attended nearby Cypress High School.
Hews Media Group-Community Newspaper confirmed that Zomalt used the stage name “Stayz Freshmore” and was a rap artist who had several songs recorded and placed on sites such as YouTube and Facebook.
Last week a bloodstained chunk of carpet found officials retrieved ablaze on the side of a road in a heavily wooded area in Auburn, Washington and DNA results confirmed that the blood belonged to Zomalt.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department told media outlets that an anonymous tip lead them to a home on Military Road in South Hill on Monday night — and the body of Zomalt, which, investigators said, had been there for some time.
The mystery death first sparked a “bodiless homicide investigation” throughout the Northwest section of the United States, specifically between the areas of Lakewood and Auburn in Washington State.
The investigation appears to have come to a tragic conclusion with the discovery of the lifeless body on Monday.
Zomalt lived in an area between the two municipalities and he maintained two different Facebook accounts, under his real name and his performance name.
On June 15, Zomalt posted under his “Stayz Freshmore” persona the following:
“Ok we are going back to Iraq and this time it’s clearly about oil. That means all those idiot people who said it was not about oil the first time were wrong. Oh yeah and happy father’s day.”
Longtime family friends of Zomalt say that he has had past “run-ins” with law enforcement officials in Washington State, but that he “wasn’t a bad kid.” He had five children.
“He did stupid stuff sometimes, but he wasn’t a bad person, and he didn’t deserve this,” one source said.
A former day care provider when Zomalt as a child, said he was “always asking questions, very talkative and wanted to explore nature.”
HMG-CN learned that Zomalt’s mother remarried and they moved from the Cerritos-Cypress area to Washington.
HMG-CN also learned that Zomalt had a falling out with a previous stepfather, and eventually left the family home to live on his own.
Last Spring, HMG-CN was told that he informed friends of his here in Cerritos and Cypress that he lived in “fear of the police” in Washington, because he was a rapper and African-American living in a “white” community.
Zomalt told friends that he was working “to get justice for a police beating that had resulted in death threats from a police department (in Washington).”
On his Facebook, he claims the police charged him with rape as a discrediting move and he was not convicted.
Also being reported is that Zomalt’s roommate has not been seen in several days.
HMG-CN will have additional updates in the coming days and weeks.